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New Mosasaurine Mosasaur material from the Hell Creek Formation


Praefectus

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I would've never associated the Hell Creek Formation with mosasaurs. But it seems they have a bit of a marine transgression from the Western Interior Seaway there as well. Very interesting! :look:

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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Thank you for sharing! It seems like the game Saurian's idea of having a Mosasaur in Hell Creek wasn't that far fetched :) 

 

Interested in all things paleontology, geology, zoology, evolution, natural history and science!
Professional exotic pet keeper, huge fantasy geek, explorer of the microfossil realm, member of the BVP (Belgian Association for Paleontology), Volunteer prepper at Oertijdmuseum Boxtel.  

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 Yea pretty cool and not your normal HC deposit.   I believe the Breien member is found only in a few counties of North Dakota.  

If you have interest in this member Ive listed a paper that has more info.

 

From the abstract: " Fossils are scarce in the Breien Member but indicate deposition within the Upper Cretaceous Jeletzkytes nebrascensis Zone and a Lancian age. The Breien vertebrate fossil assemblage consists of terrestrial and marine taxa, including fish, crocodilians, dinosaurs, and mammals. Marine chondrichthyan teeth are the most abundant vertebrate fossils. Most of these taxa corroborate a Late Cretaceous age for the member and indicate that the Breien was deposited in relatively shallow water, nearshore, marine environments. This marine chondrichthyan fauna is similar to, butless diverse than, the Maastrichtian Fox Hills Formation fauna and exhibits no similarity to the early Paleocene Cannonball Member fauna. This finding lends support for a major end-Cretaceous extinction of marine chondrichthyan species."

 

Faunal list of this member

20210820_045625.thumb.png.7ef58abbabc13128e4a72e6d0cfcc888.png

 

Marine Breien Member (Maastrichtian) of the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota: Stratigraphy, vertebrate fossil record, and age.  Hoganson and Murphy

January 2002  Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 361:247-269

DOI:10.1130/0-8137-2361-2.247

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So fully marine, but near-shore then... I must admit that when I first read the title my first thoughts were "have they found another freshwater mosasaur then?" But I guess it would've been too early in mosasaur evolution for that anyway...

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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